4858 Mental Health Report - National University of Ireland, Galway

Background and Rationale
• Production of a set of recommendations concerning the methods of data
collection.
• Creation of an information exchange network.
A number of recent projects have addressed the monitoring of mental health
data on a cross European basis and the harmonisation of data collection methods.
The Euro-REVES project, funded by Biomed 1 in 1994, is a European concerted
action on harmonisation of health expectancy calculations. Life expectancy has
increased in most European countries, but the value of this additional lifespan in
terms of mental and physical health is unclear. The project was set up to promote
harmonisation of data collection and calculation methods and to examine their
policy relevance on a cross national basis (Hibbett et al. 1999). As part of this
project a mental health sub-committee examined the current state of
harmonisation with regard to mental health indicators in Europe. Although this
project focused primarily on mental health expectancies such as indicators of
dementia and depression, it emphasised the importance of cross European
collaboration and called for comparable data sources and further harmonisation
of European mental health surveys.
The Health Monitoring Programme (HMP) was established by the European
Commission in 1997 and aims to contribute to the establishment of a Community
Health Monitoring System. There are three pillars under which the activities of
the HMP are conducted.
• Pillar A concentrates on the establishment of community wide health
indicators (indicators project).
• Pillar B focuses on the development of a community-wide network for sharing
health data (HIEMS)
• Pillar C is concerned with analyses and reporting of data (health reports).
Within the various pillars, there are a number of initiatives relating to health
data harmonisation for monitoring and planning purposes. The Health
Monitoring Programme has funded a number of projects to further investigate
European data covering many health issues. As cited previously, since 1999 a twoyear
action project co-ordinated by STAKES, Finland has been dedicated to the
establishment of mental health indicators for the European Union. Following a
review of existing mental health and well-being indicators and information
systems across Europe, the project aims to agree on harmonised mental health
indicators which will be recommended to the European Commission for inclusion
in the European Community Health Indicator system (Lehtinen & Korkeila 2000).
The areas of mental health identified by the Mental Health Indicators group as
necessary for an EU mental health monitoring system include:
• demographics
• social stress
• social interaction
• positive mental health
• the subjective experience of the individual
15